HOT TOPICS:

Jailed Hecker and girlfriend wed over the telephone. But is marriage legal?

By MaryJo Webster mwebster@pioneerpress.com

Posted:
03/02/2011 12:01:00 AM CST

Updated:
03/02/2011 10:28:24 PM CST

Denny Hecker and Christi Rowan are being held in the Sherburne County Jail.

Denny Hecker and Christi Rowan finally got the wedding they wanted. But it's not clear whether the marriage will be considered legal.

The family's pastor conducted a ceremony Feb. 22, with Hecker, 58, on the telephone from his cell in the Sherburne County Jail and Rowan, 37, at a Maple Grove church, Hecker's daughter Kelly said Wednesday.

But the Hennepin County attorney's office was investigating the marriage license and marriage certificate applications from both civil and criminal perspectives, said Santo Cruz, a spokesman for the attorney's office.

Cruz said he could not elaborate on the specific nature of the investigation.

Rowan was arrested the day after the wedding and is being held in the Sherburne County Jail.

Kelly Hecker, one of Hecker's daughters from his second marriage, said she didn't find out about the ceremony until Tuesday, a week after it happened.

"I'm not surprised," she said of her father's decision to marry, but she said she did not know why the couple decided to marry now when each faces a prison term.

Once the owner of a network of auto dealerships, Denny Hecker was sentenced last month to 10 years in prison for defrauding lenders and bankruptcy fraud. He is in the Sherburne County Jail waiting transfer to a federal prison.

Rowan was supposed to be sentenced last Friday for helping Hecker hide assets from bankruptcy creditors. But after her arrest, a judge rejected her plea bargain and postponed her sentencing.

Advertisement

Prosecutors say Rowan tapped gift cards that had been turned over to the FBI and obtained cash from Hecker accounts that had been hidden during his bankruptcy case.

The allegations pose potential problems for Rowan in her criminal case and in Hecker's bankruptcy case, where she faces contempt of court charges next Wednesday. The rejection of the plea bargain means prosecutors can request a harsher sentence than the six-month maximum prison term that had been in the agreement.

It wasn't clear Wednesday whether Hennepin County had issued an official marriage certificate, making the marriage legitimate. Typically, the ceremony officiant submits an application and the official certificate is mailed to the couple later.

If the marriage is found to be legitimate, it would be Hecker's fifth and Rowan's second.

In November, the couple made headlines when the U.S. attorney's office told a federal judge that Hecker and Rowan had tried to get married at the U.S. attorney's office while Hecker was there meeting with his attorneys. Prosecutors thought a ceremony might take place because Rowan and the family's pastor, Peter Geisendorfer-Lindgren, both showed up.

Rowan later told the Pioneer Press that Geisendorfer-Lindgren was there simply to meet with Hecker and that they had no intention of marrying that day. However, she said they did want to get married before Hecker was sentenced.

The Sherburne County Jail does not permit weddings for prisoners, and U.S. marshals, who are responsible for federal prisoners awaiting sentencing, allow a wedding only with a court order.

Geisendorfer-Lindgren presided over the ceremony last week at his church, the Lord of Life Lutheran church in Maple Grove, Kelly Hecker said. He did not return a call for comment late Wednesday.

Rowan has repeatedly said in recent months that she is committed to Hecker and described him as her "soul mate."

"Whether I have a piece of paper or don't have a piece of paper doesn't matter to me," Rowan said in November. "Denny is old-school and would like to get married. But at the end of the day, there is no benefit for us to get married — except that we're man and wife in the eyes of God."